Eldritch Horror Theatre

They could fly, but only a little.

The new attackers continuously leaping from the accumulated Feathers all flapped the strange appendages growing from their bodies in unison. Stirring up a storm of flying Feathers, they glided into the air.

But that was the extent of it. Although their bodies were already withered to the bone, those fin-shaped wings simply did not conform to aerodynamics. After a brief glide, they fell back to the ground, kicking up even more Feathers.

A few of the more agile ones used all four limbs to cling to the pillars and walls.

Looking out, the scene was a chaotic flurry of activity.

They had indeed emerged from the Amber. Judging purely by their physical forms, they were practically identical to the first two attackers.

Webbed hands and feet, fish-like gills, and fins sprouting from multiple places on their bodies.

If one had to point out a difference, it was only that their mutations appeared more profound.

Of course, in this very moment, all these details were overshadowed by the radiant glow of the Feathers.

Those gray Feathers sprouted everywhere—on their necks, backs, and even along their elongated fins.Some were even arranged in regular patterns like fish scales. At a glance, it looked like a grand celebration of biological fusion.

”Did they absorb the remains?”

Perhaps because the previous attacker had died so cleanly, the attackers only surrounded them aggressively without rushing to strike, so Classmate Su Gao merely maintained her distance in a standoff.

Moreover, she showed an unexpectedly high resistance to this sight, analyzing the cause of their mutations right away.

Considering what the Rotten Forest had once looked like, it was not hard to understand. Growing up, she had probably seen far too many bizarre bodily mutations.

”That’s one explanation,” Fu Qian said. ”But they still look too ordinary. They might not have been able to grasp such a fleeting opportunity. Try testing the ones on the ground.”

Despite being surrounded, Fu Qian did not mind giving the Feather and Fish a terrible review right to their faces. In the next moment, he signaled to Su Gao.

”Alright.”

Right as he finished his last word, Su Gao took a step forward and swung her sword.

......

It was not a preemptive attack on the monsters; even the closest Feather and Fish was far out of her blade’s reach.

In a flash, the force trailing her sword directly blew away a large patch of the thick Feather carpet, revealing the... Feather boards underneath?

Indeed, even with Su Gao’s strength, her swing actually had not cleared the Feathers entirely.

Arranged in rather neat rows, the bottommost layer of Feathers actually looked as if they had sprouted directly from the ship itself.

Just as expected. There was another expert who had grasped this opportunity.

Following the trail all the way here, it was almost certain that this was where the Prison Archangel had perished.

And the fact that the furious Meteor Judgment had not caused any obvious damage to the surroundings also confirmed, to some extent, his previous theory that it was a destined destruction aimed solely at its target.

But remaining unharmed by the Meteor was one thing. A Tier 2 Transcendent had collapsed and perished here. How could this fragile mob of flesh constructs possibly succeed in pulling chestnuts from the fire?

Fortunately, there was also a non-flesh construct here.

As the Prison Archangel was crushed into dust, this ship had likely secretly intercepted a little something.

Of course, if that were the case, the fact that they could sprout Feathers in this situation proved that the connection between the Feather and Fish and this ship was probably much closer than it appeared.

”It was the ship? Its power Rank is indeed a better fit.”

Remaining unaffected by the fall of a Tier 2 Transcendent, and even reaping benefits from it in reverse—Su Gao clearly understood the sheer weight of such a feat.

The theory that this was the construct of an ancient Divine Entity seemed increasingly confirmed.

”It should be,” Fu Qian said. ”But we will have to test further to see exactly how much it absorbed.”

Although he spoke of needing to test it, Fu Qian had no intention of lifting a single finger, fully embracing the demeanor of an operations advisor.

Fortunately, both Su Gao and the test subjects were highly cooperative. The former did not mind this division of labor in the slightest, and the latter had finally made their move.

......

Let there be light.

Perhaps because they had witnessed the previous erroneous example, even though they initiated an attack, the Feather and Fish surprisingly chose a completely different method in unison.

Rather than pouncing from all directions at once, their very first action was to simply stand in place and let out a roar.

Although they no longer sounded human at all, the roars carried a strange, infectious resonance.

Coupled with the way every single Feather on their bodies seemed to have been purified, glowing a blinding, pure white in the blink of an eye, Fu Qian quite naturally assigned them that line of dialogue.

And in the next moment, those Feathers still did not transform into a storm of weapons like the Angelic powers they had encountered before.

After their roars, the Feather and Fish continued to remain in place without launching an attack. Instead, every single holy-looking Feather on their bodies began a strange vibration.

The pure white on those Feathers truly acted like dust, shaking loose and scattering into the air.

Everything within sight grew radiantly bright along with it.

It was miraculous, simply a live demonstration of light banishing darkness.

Even though they had inherited the Prison Archangel’s opportunity, they did not exhibit the standard attacks common to users of Angelic power, which was not all that surprising to Fu Qian.

Essentially, they were just scavenging off a corpse. Even if they managed to absorb something, it should still be a fusion dominated by their own base elements.

Although this fusion was definitely on the peculiar side.

That holy radiance was entirely different from what he had faced more than once before.

Not only did it lack any offensiveness or drop his SAN Value, he could even feel a vicarious, joyful surge within it—like hope kindling anew.

Given the aesthetics of this place, it genuinely felt as though they had survived a great tribulation and were being reborn in the rising sun.

”Professor Fu?”

Su Gao, who had been fully braced for battle, also decisively held her ground in that moment, turning to consult the operations advisor instead.

”How do you feel?”

But Professor Fu, who was still carefully analyzing the sensation, was not in a hurry to answer this time. He glanced at her and threw the question back.

”It is a very unusual change,” Su Gao said. ”It is not just affecting this immediate area; the influence seems to cover the entire ship. The upside is that I have not detected any obvious hostility yet. Should we eliminate them?”

Knowing that Professor Fu wanted to use her unique constitution as a reference, Su Gao took only a single breath to complete her self-assessment before replying rapidly.

”I am afraid there is no point.”

Fu Qian, who had been observing their surroundings the entire time, shook his head gently and gestured to the side.

In just a few moments, the brightness had surged by another few hundred nits.

But that was not the only main point. On the corpse Su Gao had just created, the Feathers were actually vibrating and glowing in the exact same way.

Despite the imposing nature of their roars and movements, the Feather and Fish did not seem to be the core power driving this rising radiance.

Killing them probably would not do much to stop this change.

”Since that is the case, let’s not disturb these Natives for now.”

Fu Qian gestured into the distance.

”Let’s continue heading down.”